BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- In 1965, the Beach Boys sang the line, "At Euclid Beach on the Flying Turns I bet you can't keep from smilin'" in their song "Amusement Park USA."

The beloved park on Lake Shore Boulevard in Cleveland stayed open only another four years after that song came out, but its closing hasn't sopped people who remember it to, like the Beach Boys, sing its praises.

On Wednesday, those living at Montefiore, the healthcare and nursing facility at 1 David Myers Parkway, had the opportunity to remember fondly the park so many of them attended in their youth.

The afternoon featured a gathering room in the facility filled with imitations of the games once played at the park, popcorn, films of the park in its heyday, and books on Euclid Beach's history. Outside, the Euclid Beach Rocket Car drove seniors around the neighborhood. The car was one of those that originally whirled riders of the park's Rocket Ships ride beginning in the 1930s.

It seems everybody in the building had special memories of Euclid Beach Park.

Bea Sulzer, 95, said she first visited the park when she was 8 or 9 years old, meaning her memories go back to the late 1920s.

"I liked dancing in the ballroom," said Sulzer. "They had a beautiful ballroom and a (mirror) ball that would go all around the room. They had big name orchestras there. We would go one or two times a year."

Some of her other great memories included the taffy and custard the park's owners, the Humphrey family served, and playing in the penny arcade.

Bea's husband, onetime John Carroll University football standout Lou Sulzer, said he didn't start going to the park until after he was married.

"Fairmount Temple used to have their picnics there," said Lou Sulzer, 98. "And there were racing (carousel) horses. If you were on the horse that finished first, you got a free ride. And I remember I liked the Thriller (roller coaster)."

"I was quite young when I first went to Euclid Beach, maybe 10," said Margaret Gordon, 88, who grew up on Kinsman Road in Cleveland. "My first experience that I remember was going there with my parents and a group of friends. This was during the depression.

"My parents didn't have a car, but their friends had a pickup truck. We all piled into the back and went to Euclid Beach for a picnic.

"When I was a teenager, I had a boyfriend and a big date was going to Euclid Beach and going on The Thriller," she said.

"I got married when I was not quite 20," said Gordon, who didn't return to the park much after she was married. "I raised my three kids in Beachwood."

Ninety-year-old Ruth Moskovitz went to Euclid Beach Park for the first time after moving in 1949 with her family from Germany to America. She was 25 at the time and remembers well her mother's talents at the shooting gallery.

"My mother was a ballerina," Moskovitz said. "She trained as a ballerina since she was 2.

"She could shoot, too, she was always very good at everything. I remember she would shoot at the gallery and win prizes."

Moskovitz also recalled her mother's enjoyment of the water ride Over the Falls.

"When my children were 3 and 6 years old, my mother visited and said I had to take them to Euclid Beach."

For Karen Rubinfield, a ride in the Rocket Car brought back memories.

"Oh yes," said the 72-year-old former South Euclid resident who grew up in Cleveland. "We used to ride that ride all the time. It brought back memories riding in it again."

Ron Heitman, of South Euclid, bought two of the original 1938 Euclid beach rocket ships that once flew around a center tower and now are a popular attraction at community festivals as road cars.

"These were the largest rocket ships in the country," Heitman said. "They have six compartments (seating areas). The one at Kennywood (Amusement Park outside of Pittsburgh) had three compartments, and the one at Geauga Lake had four."

Heitman said that, after World War I, the ride featured biplanes revolving around a tower. "Then, in 1938, because of Flash Gordon, they made them rocket ships."

Heitman's Rocket Cars have appeared 10 times in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City and, in 1990, he drove around the track drivers participating in the Indianapolis 500.

As seniors left the auditorium at the program's conclusion, one woman told Montefiore Activities Team Leader Marla Papcum, who with staff and volunteers, created the afternoon of fun, that of all the monthly activities at Montefiore, "That was the best show ever."

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